A process for the production of certain magnesium amino-dicarboxylic acid-halogen complexes of the nature of the present invention is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,137,326. This process involves reaction in an aqueous medium of a magnesium salt of the corresponding amino-dicarboxylic acid with a magnesium halide. For the purpose of obtaining a solid form of the resulting magnesium-amino-dicarboxylic acid halogen complex, a spray-drying procedure may be followed. This process requires the particular magnesium salt of the amino-dicarboxylic acid as starting material, which is relatively costly and which leads to the production cost of the desired final magnesium complex being relatively high.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a process for producing amino-dicarboxylic acid-bivalent metal-halogen complexes, such as and including the magnesium-amino-dicarboxylic acid-halogen complexes mentioned above, from less costly starting materials, leading to a less costly procedure for obtaining the desired complexes.